Under-diagnosis of 'anger-syndrome'

Doctors are failing to correctly diagnosis the "anger-syndrome" that makes people lash out unexpectedly, American researchers have claimed.

As much as 7.3 per cent of the adult population in the US could suffer from intermittent explosive disorder (IED) yet only 28.8 per cent had ever been treated for the disorder.

"IED is not a clinical term well-known in society, but the weight of these numbers should help patients and physicians come to recognise the pervasiveness of this disorder and develop appropriate treatment strategies," said study leader Dr Ronald Kessler, according to BBC News.

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The disorder is diagnosed when an individual has had three or more episodes of impulsive aggressiveness "grossly out of proportion to any precipitating psychosocial stressor".

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Chicago University claimed that the average person suffering from IED will carry out 43 attacks in their lifetime.

They concluded that IED can lead to depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse disorders and that their estimate of the number of sufferers was "conservative".

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